Our Third (& Hopefully Final) Flat Application!



Sunshine and I applied for a SOBF the third time this November. I wanted to try for a flat in Sengkang again but then he advised me against it. He felt that there is no point for the demand for it is really too high and that we would not get a better chance this time round as well. I also wanted to try for a flat in Bidadari because of its central location. However, he disagreed because he felt that 1) the demand is too high and then we would not get it as well and more importantly, 2) there is no point paying such a high premium for a centralised location. He rationalised that the price for a 4 room there could allow us to buy a 5 room in other places and still have money left over for our other needs. Hence, he proposed that instead of buying a 4 room in Bidadari and then struggle to pay off the monthly mortgage, we could perhaps take a look at a 5 room Sembawang? With that, a seed is planted and the idea of us staying in Sembawang was formed in my mind.

Sembawang was chosen in this round of SOBF simply because of its largest number of flat supply and that an upcoming MRT station (Canberra MRT Station) would be built near the projects offered. There were more than a thousand 4 rooms and three hundred plus 5 rooms offered here this time round. Previously, when these projects were launched, there were no news of any MRT station being planned near them. Accessibility was and still is a big problem now with limited buses running along this part of Singapore and the nearest MRT station being at Sembawang, which is more than 1km away. Therefore, the take up rates for all these projects were low. Comparatively, with the news of building a new MRT station being released just before the May BTO launch, all the flats offered in the same area in Sembawang were oversubscribed!

Original picture taken from HDB
Original picture taken from HDB

I thought about Sunshine’s suggestion to consider Sembawang and soon felt that this seemed like a good choice too. However, the offer of a 5 room was also stuck in my head. I was contented with a 4 room previously partly because of the grants available and because he was not yet working during our past two applications. This time round, with him working and effectively decreasing the amount of grants we would get if we were invited to choose a flat, I was not very tempted in applying for a 4 room now. The bigger 5 room appealed to me mainly because I hoped that with the extra space, I would be able to have my own room for baking next time! Hence, a new round of extensive obsessive reading started again.

I went to read up more about the project that we were interested in: Eastcrown@Canberra! This project is the one nearest to the future Canberra Station among all those offered and some units even face a “drainage reserve” or longkang. The industrial park on the other side of the reserve is “clean”, meaning it does not have factories producing harmful substances or gases. There are electronic companies, companies in the Food and Beverage (F&B) line, packaging companies etc. I also read that there are many places to eat along the Simpang Kiri Park Connector. Hurray to future dates in the park!

Ultimately, we hope to get a unit here! In the event that we do not, I still hope that we would be able to get a decent unit in other Sembawang projects on offer, which both of us love this time round! May luck be with us and give us a ballot number below 50! (I counted that there are around 64 (?) 5 room flats above 9th floor in Eastcrown@Canberra available this launch. I also counted that there is a total of 262 5 room flats which are 4th floor and below within the whole Sembawang project offered. So even if we do not get a number below 50, as long as our number is below 262, we should be choosing a flat this time round! *cross fingers!!!* ti gong bo bi!) Oh! I forgot to mention that the number of applications received versus the number of flats available is 321/392! This meant that all applicants would at least get to choose a flat! Congrats to us! 😀


Spread the word:
Rainbow

A novice baker =)

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